Followed the contests rules and/or prompts given:

You followed the prompt well. It's easy to see the bench used as the prompt. Well done.



What I liked:

I like the way you opened your story. The beginning paragraph/sentence of a story, as you know, is known as the 'hook' and it's where a writer pulls, or hooks, his reader. Your opening paragraph does that well. It left me with questions that only reading further would answer.


Punctuation/Spelling:

I saw no spelling/grammar/punctuation errors, but there were a couple of places where I stumbled over the wording.

You wrote: She headed past Mom and Dad who dozed on the couch with the New Year's Rockin Eve dancing across the television and out the front door.
As written, it sounds like the New Year's Rockin not only danced across the television but it also went out the front door.



Favorite Lines:

While I found lots of excellent description, some of the sentences stood out, here are a few.

Reese stood in the center of the living room, shell-shocked from the whole experience. Everything that she wanted was given to her and then snatched away in the span of thirty seconds.

Reese collapsed onto the frosted surface of the bench just as the sky opened up and white frozen tears fell all around.



Comments/Suggestions:

When Reese gets home and is eating a cookie, her mother says, "Hey now, those are for dinner." Mom swatted playfully at her. Then her face grew serious. "You don't have to hide who you are here."
I wondered about this. Reese had just gotten home from a movie and was munching on a cookie; I wondered why her mother would have thought about her daughter's sexuality at that point. It seemed misplaced, coming suddenly out of nowhere, without context. I understand the Reese's struggle with her sexuality is the main conflict here, but it seemed like the wrong place to show it to the reader.

I think Reese's parents were a bit too involved in their daughter's sexual orientation. I understand that they were trying to help her, encourage her to be who she is, but it seems like every conversation they have with Reese is about the secret she's hiding about her sexual preference. I think this shows when Reese tells her mother Charlie is coming over tomorrow and is surprised when her mother lets it go at that, instead of giving her the 'be yourself' talk. Even Reese is surprised that the conversation hasn't evolved into her sexuality.

Conclusion:

There is a lot of realism here. Both Charlie and Reese have the same feelings for each other, but each is afraid of scaring the other away. I especially liked the scene where the girls exchanged gifts, their hugs leading to a kiss. I think it is very authentic for the girls to have felt embarrassed at having kissed, and that embarrassment caused each of them to feel uncomfortable. It is easy to see that when Reese froze that Charlie would think of it as rejection. You did a really good job with making the scene realistic.

Unfortunately, this scene is probably a familiar one to many people. All of this gave the story an authentic and timely feel. From the emotions to the longing, you got it right here.

Congratulations on your 1st Place win in the Winter Romance Contest.

~~Thank you for sharing your story.~~

My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!" .